Few month ago came across Hyphessobrycon columbianus at some close by LFS. The fish was pretty drop in colour and very stress out. I took all 4 they had. I know how beautiful these guys can be.
They start shining now and they are very entertaining fish in my medium sized cichlid tank.
Alex

Looks like a very nice group. If you want more of them, take that big male (center fish last photo) and put him with just one female (other three are all females) in a 10-15 gallon tank with a bunch of Java Moss on the bottom for about a week. I found them to be a very easily bred species, even had fry show up in a tank with adults. Large fry for a Tetra, and they grow fast.

There are two kinds of error: blind credulity and piecemeal criticism. Sound skepticism is the necessary condition for good discernment; but piecemeal criticism is an error. - Egyptian proverb

Darrell Ullisch wrote:Looks like a very nice group. If you want more of them, take that big male (center fish last photo) and put him with just one female (other three are all females) in a 10-15 gallon tank with a bunch of Java Moss on the bottom for about a week. I found them to be a very easily bred species, even had fry show up in a tank with adults. Large fry for a Tetra, and they grow fast.

Thanks Darell.
Do you distinguish male from female at my picture by lengths of the dorsal? It does show one fish with pronounced taller dorsal (probably picture angle), but in reality I see two fish with equally longer fin then other 2 (bottom fish at my last picture). Either way it's all good, will have enough in case of desire to breed them. I can only imagine how beautiful large school of these tetras will look in the tank under the sun light.
Alex

I sex most Tetras by "candling". Shine a light from behind and you can see the shape of the air bladder, though with some species such as this one you can see it without the backlighting. Males have a large, somewhat rounded bladder, while females will have a more elongated bladder that bends around the larger silver sac that encloses the vital organs. It tends to work better with flattened species. I may be wrong, as doing this from a photo isn't easy. Long fins are usually males, though I bred them before the males even had long fins. I learned that breeding younger fish works better with Tetras, as they have relatively short lifespans in the wild. In aquaria, they can easily outlive their reproductive life, which is much shorter than a Cichlid's!

There are two kinds of error: blind credulity and piecemeal criticism. Sound skepticism is the necessary condition for good discernment; but piecemeal criticism is an error. - Egyptian proverb

Darrell Ullisch wrote:I sex most Tetras by "candling". Shine a light from behind and you can see the shape of the air bladder, though with some species such as this one you can see it without the backlighting. Males have a large, somewhat rounded bladder, while females will have a more elongated bladder that bends around the larger silver sac that encloses the vital organs. It tends to work better with flattened species. I may be wrong, as doing this from a photo isn't easy. Long fins are usually males, though I bred them before the males even had long fins. I learned that breeding younger fish works better with Tetras, as they have relatively short lifespans in the wild. In aquaria, they can easily outlive their reproductive life, which is much shorter than a Cichlid's!

Very interesting method of sexing Tetras, learn something new for me. Thanks!